Prior to suffering the shoulder injury that will sideline him approximately four-to-six months, Cesaro was in line for a push from WWE after he impressed Vince McMahon, according to Daily Wrestling News.

After working both WWE RAW and SmackDown last week, it was reported that the “Swiss Superman” suffered a shoulder injury that would require surgery. WWE confirmed Cesaro’s injury just a few days later, thus adding another performer to WWE’s injured reserve. Ironically, the myriad of injuries to superstars such as Seth Rollins, Daniel Bryan, and Randy Orton was seen by many within WWE as the perfect opportunity to push Cesaro.

Among those impressed by Cesaro recently has been McMahon, who’s made his opinions of Cesaro lacking charisma vocal in the past. In a WWE Network exclusive appearance on Steve Austin’s Stone Cold Podcast last year, McMahon said he believes Cesaro has the physical tools to be successful but still lacks in some areas, via UPROXX.

“He doesn’t quite have the charisma, he doesn’t have quite the verbal skills. Maybe it’s because he’s Swiss, I don’t know in terms of European style… at the moment, he lacks it.“

Several months after McMahon’s podcast appearance, Cesaro sat down with WWE.com for an exclusive interview. The “King of Swing” was asked a bevy of questions about his tag team with Tyson Kidd, wrestling John Cena, how to be successful in WWE, and more.

The 34-year-old native of Lucerne, Switzerland, also gave his thoughts on McMahon’s assessment of him, saying the WWE chairman’s comments were “outlandish.”

“The infamous podcast. You can’t really reason or explain something, because once people get a certain impression, that’s really hard to change. With anything, it’s kind of similar here, in that the only way to respond to such an outlandish comment is to prove it wrong, and that’s what I’m doing. Usually when people ask me about [the podcast], the way I respond is that two months and 22 days after that podcast, me and Tyson Kidd won the WWE Tag Team Championships. That’s my response to that. And that’s a pretty good response.”

In this latest report, it’s said that McMahon was, “very impressed with Cesaro’s work in his recent RAW match against Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens.” Also, aside from their match on the October 26 edition of RAW (embedded below), Cesaro and Owens were involved in a program this summer, which included their match at SummerSlam in Brooklyn, New York.

Aside from Cesaro’s matches with Owens, he also impressed WWE officials with his performance in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament. Despite losing in the second round, Cesaro wrestled in two well-received matches against Sheamus and Roman Reigns. Not too long after, the injury bug bit Cesaro and now he may have to wait at least half a year before returning.

This injury did not only impact Cesaro but also spotlighted the WWE’s roster depth issues. With several big names out with injuries or prior commitments, WWE appears to be treading water until reinforcements arrive in the coming months. John Cena, Brock Lesnar, and others are expected to return next month.

While the injury may have thrown a wrench into whatever plans the WWE had for Cesaro, Daily Wrestling News mentioned that it may be a positive sign for Cesaro’s WWE future that McMahon at least began warming up to the idea of using him more prominently.